The peaceful Revolution of 1974

This photograph, taken in LISBON, on the early hours of April 25, 1974, does not look like the picture of a revolution. Yet it is. Of a particularly peaceful one that, on that same day, ended a 48 year old dictatorship. 

One of the soldiers had left the tank to make a call from the phone booth (the public telephone was the only option in those days, and still safer than any cellphone). The poster calls for an «evolution without revolution». But the future was already on the march.

Today in PORTUGAL we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 25th of April. 

The MARINA TAVARES DIAS ARCHIVES

GALECIANS

In 1800, the number of emigrants from Galicia, Northern Spain, residing in Portugal was already close to 80,000. 

Throughout the next one hundred years, selling water in barrels, they were to be found everywhere: between Rossio and the arcades in Praça do Comércio, between the Ministry buildings and the quaysides, at the doors of the large department stores, on street corners downtown and specially in Chiado, where there used to be a square known as the «Ilha dos Galegos» – «Galician Island». 

In 1830 about 3,454 water-sellers crossed the Lisbon streets daily. But the Galicians also had other trades, such as taking messages, delivering parcels or helping to move house. Two Galicians and a rope, so the saying goes, were capable of moving almost an entire sitting-room full of furniture in one go. 

Another saying had it that love without a Galician was indeed love without feet. What would have become of lovers without a messenger for their love-letters at a time when all affairs of the heart had to be protected from paternal wrath?

MARINA TAVARES DIAS

LISBON FOR THE TOURIST WHO LOVES HISTORY

LISBON'S CLASSIC BOOKSHOPS... and the already classic 'who cares when we are in crisis?'

PORTUGAL'S CLASSIC BOOKSHOPS 

THAT DISAPEAR  WITHOUT ANY REGARD FOR THEIR VALUE OR FOR THEIR HISTORY

This was number 17 of one of Lisbon's most important boulevards: Avenida Almirante Reis.
Founded in 1910 as a corset store; it was transformed in an old and cozy bookstore in the 1970's, with valuable and rare books occupying the same furniture that had not been altered since the very beginning. 

The tiles you see on the floor are not sold anymore: they were manufactured to absorb water easily and to keep the store warm during the winter. The shelves were unique, made in a Rua dos Anjos carpenter who was very keen on art-nouveau styles. The ceiling had floral combinations and the back office was all made of oak.

Then, came «the crisis era». Who is going to care about some classical store when there is not even a Ministry of Culture anymore? Who is going to stop a business of growing at any (non-specifically-financial) cost? - No-one.

The store was all broken and now is a convenience store with beer, potatoes, gas bottles, batteries and cheap clothing. Its interiors? - Gone with the Wind. Like the title of a book I once bought here, in a precious first edition.

 Before

Now

Hospital de D. Estefânia | QUEEN STEPHANIE OF PORTUGAL HOSPITAL

 Hospital de D. Estefânia

in the 19th century

(left and below)

Original plant of 

Queen Stephanie's Hospital (1860s)

AND TODAY:

See the highlighted

green space 

surrounded by pink?

It's the

Queen's Hospital

and its gardens.

Notice how few other

green spaces

central Lisbon has

The Queen Stephanie's 

Hospital Friends' League

Queen Stephanie's Hospital still exists in 2014.

But there are plans for its destruction, due to

its centrality and the value of its land and gardens.

Nevertheless, it was built on land owned by the King

and with money of the Royal Household.


Read the 
Biography of QUEEN STEPHANIE 
in the pages 
of the VII volume
of LISBOA DESAPARECIDA 
(Lost Lisbon)
by Historian 
Marina Tavares Dias, 2001.

Stephanie, Princess of Hohenzollern, Queen and Angel of Portugal

«[...] In January of 1859, Estefânia (Stephanie) and Pedro are so accostumed to sharing every detail of everyday life that a simple separation of three days is immense. They write letters to each other and the Queen confesses her fears about his health. In the return, they can't stop " kissing again and again and again", as the Queen writes, concluding that they could never again live without one another. 

[...] The official engagements that impress them the most are all connected to the well-being of children. They worry about the 'wheel', where unwanted newborns are left to charity during the night. They become godparents of a baby who arrives during one of their many unknown night visits. 

Estefânia will write: "The merchants and traders of Lisbon put at my disposal, celebrating our marriage, 132 thousand Francs, with which we want to establish a hospital for children." 

It is with this wish that Portugal will have its first pediatric hospital , the future Hospital of D. Estefânia. Later in 1859, the young King Pedro, already a widower, will not let his wife's dream die. [...]»

Adapted from the Text by 
MARINA TAVARES DIAS

The Biography of QUEEN STEPHANIE 
goes on in the pages of the VII volume
of LISBOA DESAPARECIDA (Lost Lisbon), 2001.

BY THE SEASIDE

By the beautiful sea.

Owing to the fact that Lisbon was built on a river estuary, the city has always lived side-by-side with the beach. Nevertheless, the fashion of spending summers at the seaside only took hold in the second half of the 19th century. 

The industrial revolution had brought thousands of families into the city to seek their fortunes in the terrible conditions of daily life in the factories. In fewer than one hundred years, a sunburned skin which had previously been the exclusive attribute of the peasantry, had now become a luxury. 

The most popular beaches thronged by Lisbon's population were almost within the city itself. Belém and Pedrouços were at the height of fashion in around 1860. 

During this period, wealthy families enjoyed spending the month of August in the surrounding countryside and the month of September at the seaside. In those days, Cascais was still thought to be too far away for convenience. Until, one day, it was reached by rail and the court of king Luiz set up residence there.